Pat Hoban re-signs at Oriel as striker sets sights on Dundalk’s goalscoring record

Dundalk forward Pat Hoban has re-signed for the Louth club on a three year deal. 

The Loughrea man has been reunited with his fellow Galwegian with the return of Stephen O’Donnell to the Oriel Park dugoutfor the 2022 season. Speaking with dundalkfc.com, the new head coach was enthusiastic about getting the striker to line for the club next season.

“We’re delighted to have Pat on board,” said O’Donnell. “I really enjoyed playing with him and I can’t wait to get hands-on with him on the training field now.

“I thought his form towards the end of last season was tremendous. Everything about his play was exactly what you would want from your frontman and we’ll be looking to get that from him again next year.

“This is the start of something new and exciting at the club and Pat is really keen to be a part of it. He will be a mainstay of it in regards to his character and his presence around the place. Getting him on board is a great starting point to build around.”

Hoban himself, speaking with the same source, revealed that some of the motivation behind his decision to stay at the club was to chase down the mantle of the club’s greatest goalscorer - a title currently held by Joey Donnelly with 142 strikes, 17 ahead of Hoban.

“I have a record in sight and I want to create history here,” he said. “There’s only a small minority of people who set records like that at clubs and I want to be one of them. I want to smash the record and leave something there for a player to try and emulate in the future.

“I didn’t want to go anywhere else,” he added. “My life is here and I love being here and being in town. There is a real buzz around the place again and now we can start to concentrate on working hard next year and building something again.”

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— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) December 18, 2021